Unique digital nomad travel adventures from around the U.S.
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Hiking on your vacation is an excellent way to experience the natural wonders of a destination. Even if you wouldn’t normally consider yourself a hiker, I can guarantee (okay maybe not really, but there’s a very high probability) you will see something incredible if you include a little outdoors time in your next vacation planning. This post will discuss why it is important, how you can go about it, and highlight some times it has enhanced our trips.
Okay, I might be a little biased in this answer because I love hiking. But here goes: you should include hiking on your vacation because you will see things that are unique to the place you are visiting in ways you wouldn’t be able to if you stayed inside.
My friend G visited Bali last year and half the pictures that she shared on social media were of the incredible plants and flowers that can be found in this part of the world. Flora is amazing! And while you will be able to see some of it if you stayed indoors, it is so much cooler to see it in person.
When we visited Everglades National Park in 2019, I was blown away by the vegetation. Did you know Everglades is essentially a river? Nope, me neither. As such, it has incredible grassy/marshy areas with lily pads where cool animals live. We were able to explore a few trails at this park to really get the feel of this area.
Speaking of Everglades, it was amazing to see real live alligators hanging out just a little ways away from us. Normally there’d be a fence/glass wall dividing you from this stuff at a zoo, but just a quick hike from the car brought us up close and personal.
One of my very favorite things about hiking in Peru was that we were in such close proximity to llamas and alpacas. One morning on the three-day-long trail I emerged from my tent and saw a bunch of llamas just hanging out right there next to us. It was surreal; free-roaming llamas, high in the Andes, just doing their thing.
One of the whole reasons you go on vacation is to see stuff you don’t have back home. Hiking on your vacation will get you to those places. In our hometown, we live in a high desert. We see sagebrush and the start of a mountain chain. I love it. But I also love seeing stuff other than that.
In Iceland (and Yellowstone for that matter) we were thrilled to see geysers spewing up steam. A short walk from our tour bus parking brought us to Geysir, the hole-in-the-ground-spewing-steam that all other geysers are named after.
In Poland we visited the Wieliczka Salt Mine. If you’re wondering why I’m including that in a ‘hiking on your vacation’ post, it’s because we walked a few miles underground through the enormous caves and caverns that have been dug through the earth. It was insane!
Okay, hopefully I’ve convinced you to get outdoors on your next trip. That begs the next question of ‘how.’ One word, people: research. If you are thinking, ‘hiking just isn’t my thing,’ don’t worry. Through research you can find hikes to fit whatever activity/interest level you have.
The most important thing to look for when you are trying to find a hike is how hard it is going to be. You definitely don’t want to be miserable and end up injuring yourself if you are pushed too far. The most important thing is to know what you are comfortable with and not go past that point.
There are all sorts of ways to get outside for most activity levels. Last weekend I found a hike a few hours away from my house that led to a waterfall. You can access it from the top of the waterfall with a five minute walk from the car or from the bottom with a mile long hike up a hill. In the Everglades, the trails we went on were ADA accessible and either paved or wood-planked. You do not have to climb Everest to get outdoors on your vacation. Don’t rule something out just because you think you can’t do it; in most cases you will be able to find a trail that meets your needs! We saw a Segway tour circling Uluru in Australia, for heaven’s sake.
I love guidebooks. In most there will be a ‘nature’ section that discusses outdoor adventures. You can peruse these sections to find hikes that look good to you. Another avenue is to simply Google ‘hikes near X.’ That’s how B and I found the hiking trail we went on the North Cascades National Park area. You can also join a newsletter group on a travel website. This is how I found out about the waterfall that we visited last weekend. It was half a mile away from a town that I’ve visited hundreds of times and I never knew it existed. Check out https://www.onlyinyourstate.com to see if there are any hikes near you that you might not have heard about.
You can also use the local tourism industry to help you with your hiking planning. You’ve probably seen the information kiosks in cities you’ve visited. You can visit these and see if there are any local companies that will pick you up, drive you to the location and guide you on your hike. This really is the easiest way to add hiking to your vacation. While we were in Bali, we used a company to help us go on a sunrise hike on a volcano. Spoiler alert–we did not see the sunrise and it rained on us most of the time. It was pretty miserable. But we had the comfort of a driver and guide telling us where to go. It would have been much worse if we were trying to figure out the path and drive to the trailhead on our own.
That Bali hike is an excellent example of when hiking on your vacation goes bad. However, like most things that go wrong on vacations, I now look back on the experience and laugh. (B might need a few more years to be able to say the same.) So even if your hike doesn’t go quite as planned, it is sure to be memorable and make for a good story.
There are lots of things that I love about travel, but most of these can be boiled down to I like experiencing/seeing new things. And there are so many beautiful places in this world, it would be a shame not to see them just because you think you don’t like to hike. Find a trail that works for you and make it happen. Go take a hike!
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R and I have full-time jobs with limited vacation hours. We are blessed to have more than two weeks of vacation a year, but we are still constrained by the amount of time we have to travel and go on adventures. Therefore, we have become experts in making the most of limited vacation time. If, like us, you find yourself with a bucket list a mile long, below are some tips and tricks to consider the next time you are feeling the itch to go somewhere new.
A friend of mine just got back from a three-month stay in Spain. She is lucky enough to be able to work remotely and her boss was agreeable to her changing her hours a bit to accommodate a European time zone. Sounds great. But let’s be honest, most of us do not have the flexibility, money or vacation hours to spend three months in Spain. A lot of people do not even have the flexibility, money or vacation hours to go on a two-week trip. If that is you, fear not, even a short trip is better than no trip.
Some Finnish researchers found that eight days is the ideal vacation length. But just because you cannot dedicate that much time to trip does not mean you cannot have a good time. A coworker of mine just spent a weekend with her kiddo and husband exploring a new (to them) part of Idaho. It was a quick trip, but they had a wonderful time. Best of all, it motivated them to start planning more trips and adventures in the near future.
If all you have time and money for is a short trip, go already!
Weekend getaways are wonderful and if you can grab an extra day or two to make it a long weekend, even better. Often, we take a couple of days off before and/or after a weekend to stretch a vacation into a five-day trip. We have done that for places in the U.S. But we have also done that for places like Iceland and Puerto Rico. Would I like to spend more than five days in places like Iceland and Puerto Rico? Yes. But I will take five days over no trip at all.
Twice now, R and I have traveled to Europe for Christmas. Between weekends and holiday hours, we got a 10-day trip and only had to take four days off of work. This year, we are going to utilize our Thanksgiving holiday to explore some parts of Florida we have never been to.
One thing I like about holiday travel is that I can see how other cultures celebrate certain holidays. The Christmas markets in Germany really are as adorable as everyone says they are. You can also experience a climate very different from your own. Thanksgiving is cold in Idaho. I am excited to see what a warm Thanksgiving in Florida feels like.
Note: holiday travel can be more expensive, so you will want to plan as far in advance as possible.
If you travel for work, make the most of those trips. (See these tips to make work travel more fun.) There is nothing more frustrating to me than traveling to a new city and only seeing its airport, conference center and a hotel room. If my schedule and budget allow for it, I try to fly in the weekend before or stay the weekend after. (Sometimes I have done both!) If you are traveling back east, you may even be able to see a couple of new cities and states simply because they are closer and connected by relatively short train rides.
R and I took a fun Northeast road trip because we found ourselves on the East Coast for work at the same time. I had a rental car so I picked R up in Boston and from there, we explored Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire on an extended weekend before buckling down and getting back to work. It was a road trip we both remember fondly, even though it was freezing while we were there!
If you have limited vacation hours, you will want to consider the amount time it actually takes you to travel somewhere. Can you drive there in less than a day? Is there a non-stop flight available? You do not want to spend half of your vacation just getting to your destination. (Unless you are road tripping. Then by all means, enjoy the journey.) I find it hard to justify a plane ticket to anywhere in Asia for a short trip. It just seems like a waste of a 14-hour flight. I would save that for those instances I have more time to explore and use my long weekends for those places I can get to in a couple of hours.
And don’t be afraid to explore your own backyard. You might be surprised by the possible adventures that surround you.
Making the most of limited vacation time means saying no. This is the hardest part, in my opinion. Limited time means limited options for activities, restaurants, attractions, etc. Prioritize what you really, really want to do and try not to beat yourself up for the things you miss. Just tell yourself you will come back and try them on your next trip.
Prioritization is part of any vacation. But it is especially important on a short and sweet ones.
A trip is made up of three phases: planning, the trip itself and recollection. You will want to maximize all three in order to get the most out of your vacation. Do not underestimate the power of anticipation. I love a good plan and feel that planning a vacation is the next best thing to actually going on one. Planning and research keeps you excited and focused on your next adventure.
After you return home from a trip, you can still glean enjoyment from your adventures. Even just talking about a trip can evoke feelings of nostalgia. I recommend you take photos, keep a travel journal or document your trip in some sort of way. Then go back and reminisce every now and then. Once in a while, I will read R a passage from one my travel journals. It usually ends in laughter and a whole lot of, “remember when…” This is especially true with my Ecuador travel journal. For some reason, that trip was particularly entertaining and reading about it brings back all of those funny memories.
For most of us, three-month excursions to Spain or year-long trips around the world are not feasible. Instead, we have to find the best ways to stretch our vacation hours and dollars as far as they will go. Our hope is that the tips and tricks discussed above will help you in making the most of limited vacation hours, money or both.
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We have talked about the importance of traveling with quality clothes and gear. The right clothes can make a big difference on how comfortable you are out on the road. They also help with packing light. However, finding affordable travel clothes for women can sometime be a challenge.
Travel clothes. Travel accessories. Travel gear. All of that travel stuff can get expensive, especially if you are looking for quality. There are brands out there that bill themselves as travel specific. I like many of them. But there are also brands that are geared toward adventures (e.g. camping, hiking, etc.). These brands make excellent options for travel. They provide a quality product that should hold up under the strain of life on the road. The trick is finding these products at an affordable price.
Below are my top eight suggestions for finding affordable travel clothes for women. You can also often find affordable travel gear and accessories at the places listed below. I have found varying degrees of success with each one. In no particular order:
If you are looking for affordable travel clothes for your next trip, I recommend an off-price store. These stores sell closeouts, overstocks and seconds from brands you will recognize (e.g. Columbia, Outdoor Research, PrAna, etc.). They also sometimes sell travel gear, but I find them most useful for affordable travel clothes.
R and I especially like Sierra Trading Post. We are lucky enough to have a store nearby. If you are not as lucky, you can buy online and they often have good deals on shipping. The prices are already pretty good in general, but I love shopping off the clearance rack. That is where you can find some great prices on travel clothes for women.
Speaking of online shopping, the internet is home to some really great stores that offer affordable travel clothes for women. You can shop stores you recognize (think REI, The North Face and Patagonia) and look for clearance items. Or you can head over to online stores like Steep & Cheap, Backcountry and The Clymb. I have found some fantastic deals on clothes for travel, as well as my latest backpack (read the five things to think about when choosing a backpack), from these stores. So be sure to check them out.
There are a few downsides to shopping online of course. You cannot try before you buy. Many places offer refunds and a few even offer free shipping, but there is still some risk. If the fit, color or feel is wrong, you may be out of luck. If the deal is too good to pass up though, I think the risk is worth it.
To be honest, I have done more selling on Craigslist than I have shopping. But all that means is somebody else is getting my good travel gear! Personally, I would not bother with Craigslist for travel clothes. It seems more work than it is worth. However, you can definitely find good travel backpacks for women on Craigslist as well as quality camping and outdoor gear. You will have to be patient and diligent in searching, but it is possible to land some affordable travel gear.
In general, garage and yard sales are a great place to find deals. Of course, it can be hit or miss when it comes to travel gear, clothes and accessories for women. But it is possible. I recommend you check out yard sales in more affluent towns and neighborhoods. In my experience, the chances of finding quality brands, especially in regards to clothes, increases the higher the median income of an area is. The Ketchum/Sun Valley area is a favorite of mine for yard sales. During the summer, there are yard sales happening all around the valley every Saturday. The folks there know quality and rarely wear an item out before selling or donating it.
Speaking of donations, thrift or second-hand stores are one of my favorite places to find affordable travel clothes for women. There is nothing more satisfying than finding that new-looking Icebreaker shirt for $4 (and yes, that experience has happened to both R and me). It requires digging, patience and an understanding that you may not be successful. More times than not, I head home empty-handed. But those times I am successful make all the effort worth it.
Again, in certain towns and neighborhoods (think resort towns like Ketchum/Sun Valley), the thrift stores will be more likely to have the kinds of clothes and gear you are looking for. On the flip side, they usually know what they have and price accordingly. Most likely, you will still find some great deals. But the prices will probably be higher than what you would pay at your local thrift store.
Your other option is an online thrift store (like ThredUp). These are becoming more and more popular. I have yet to score a good deal myself, but I am on the lookout. Our friend C, is a big fan.
Consignment stores, specifically those geared towards outdoor adventures, are an excellent place to find affordable travel clothes for women, as well as affordable travel gear. We have a couple of outdoor consignment stores here in Boise including my favorite, Outdoor Exchange. They have an online presence, but I prefer to go in and explore. I also enjoy selling items with them. They make it easy to buy and sell lightly-used travel clothes and gear.
I recommend you do a search for outdoor consignment stores near you. Then go in the check them out. You may find a treasure trove of affordable travel clothes for your next trip.
End of season sales are great! I often buy winter clothes in the summer and summer clothes in the winter simply because the sales are too good to pass up. If there is a particular store you just love, find out when their big sales are. For example, find out when your local REI Garage Sale is. This is for members only, but a lifetime membership is only $20 or so and you can score some really good deals.
Also, always look for markdowns toward the end of a season. Just because there are no big “sale” signs around does not mean an item will not be marked down. I recently purchased a new wool sweater from Pendleton that I had had my eye on. The store was advertising their sleepwear sale, but there was no mention of any other items being on sale. I checked the price tag and found a large red slash with a new price I was comfortable paying. Now I am the owner of a beautiful wool sweater that was much more affordable than the first time I saw it.
I hate the amount of email I receive. However, I love coupons and insider deals. So I guess I will continue to deal with copious amounts of email in order to take advantage of whatever deals may come my way for travel gear. Sierra Trading Post often offers coupons to subscriptions. I have taken advantage of it, and others, many times. If you do not find a particular subscription worth it, you can always unsubscribe.
Well, those are my suggestions for finding affordable travel clothes for women. They also make great resources for finding affordable travel gear and accessories. Some require more effort than others. Some will be a dead-end. But some will provide you with all you need to look and feel great on your next trip. The best part is that once you invest in quality products, they will last a long time and you will not need to replace them anytime soon…unless you want to. Happy shopping!
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